Being a parent is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, but it is also the biggest responsibility I have ever had. I wanted to be a mummy for so long and when Baby finally arrived the feeling was overwhelming. I finally had my long wished for baby, but also I had her future in my hands. As parents we are role models to our children; as they grow they are watching our every move and shaping their own behaviour to match ours. Such a responsibility to ensure that big milestones for baby are achieved and that we do our best to influence our children positively.
There are periods of a child’s life that milestones come thick and fast, these can be little milestones such a learning to smile or big milestones for baby such as taking their first steps. We can support our children in all of these achievements. We smile at our little ones so they learn to mirror our face and smile back, we hold their hands as they learn to walk and we chatter away to help them to develop their first words.
As a parent each one of these milestones is as exciting for you, as it is for your child, probably even more so as we are more aware of the challenges and realities of our baby’s journey.
Baby waiting outside nursery
One of the most significant, and largest, milestones for Baby so far has been starting nursery. During the first few months of Baby’s life, I could not imagine anything worse that leaving her in the care of someone else, of me not being there when she needed me. As time progressed it was obvious that she needed to experience nursery, to mix with children that weren’t chosen for her by default of being the children of her mum’s friends and to have experiences away from me.
For the first two years of her life we were barely apart, having no family to leave her with; so leaving her at nursery was a big shock for both of us. For the first week or so, I won’t lie, it was awful but quite quickly things improved and now 7 months later she would go every day if she had her own way. She still runs to me and gives me the biggest hug when I collect her, but her head is full of learning and fun, of stories about her day and of happiness from being with her ‘nursery’ friends. She quite simply adores it, she chats about her friends and her teachers, hugging them as if they were family.
Enjoying her first nursery sports day.
I am so glad that we took the plunge and let her go, nursery has been a fantastic experience for her so far and she learns things there that she wouldn’t at home. As much as I hate to admit it, it does her good to be away from Mummy sometimes too, to have her own experiences.
My baby’s journey is about to take another turn, as in fourteen months we pack up and move to France. Although she is still young we are starting to gently prepare her for her new life. On a recent holiday to France, we taught her three basic french words and although she probably didn’t understand exactly what she was saying she did repeat the words and that’s how all learning starts. As she grows older we will be able to teach her a little more, to make the transition as smooth as possible.
We want her future story to be a joyful place full of happiness, so as parents we will do anything in our power to make our influence on our baby’s future a positive one.
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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Aptamil Follow On Milk via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Aptamil Follow On Milk.